Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Watching Obama's Inauguration in Civic Center Plaza

After watching Obama recite the presidential oath of office along with the inept Chief Justice Roberts, with the smashingly attractive Michelle at his side...

...I ambled over to Civic Center Plaza where thousands of people were watching the inauguration together on a large screen.

There was an extraordinarily happy vibe among the large group...

...which I would venture to say is as much relief at the world surviving the nightmare of eight years of the Bush and Cheney regime...

...as any serious hope that President Obama is going to magically make things right.

The organizers from NextArts deserve a round of applause for putting together the event, especially since they received so little official help from San Francisco's bureaucracies.

For those in the know who wanted to sit, the inauguration was also being broadcast live on a screen in the basement of the Main Branch of the public library across the street from the plaza.

Even better, there were volunteers ladling out celebratory cake...

...complete with presidential seal.

Any euphoria was quickly dimmed upon returning home and seeing local politicos Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein playing mother hens during an official presidential signing ceremony. These two ladies have enabled a vast range of crimes during the last eight years, from officially sanctioned torture of prisoners to an unprovoked war in Iraq, and it's time for them to step up and repair some of the damage. It's also time for Senator Feinstein to start considering a new hair-do, which looks like the same one she had in the 1970s during her stint on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. As a friend from New York asked me on the phone last night, "Has her hair always been that old-fashioned? It looks like something she wore in high school.

7 comments:

Actually your friend is not too far off. Go to this picture on my other site

http://www.gregdewar.com/images/helendifi%20copy.jpg

and you can see for yourself.

Dianna had a bit of a FAIL with her planning...those caught in the infamous "purple tunnel" for hours who had tickets and saw NONE of the inauguration even have a group on Facebook documenting the disaster...

Since you didn’t ask, here’s my two cents on the Inaugural address. It belonged to the prophetic tradition every bit as much as Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. It’s more optimistic than Lincoln’s vision of an America to be punished for the sin of slavery. Lincoln dwells on the awfulness of God’s judgment and cannot question its righteousness. Obam goes to First Corinthians 13, the most beautiful part of the New Testament. It’s a sweeter vision than Lincoln’s, but then we just inaugurated a black president, more evidence to Obama that he is right to see our country as moving to a more perfect union.

Dear Matt: I've been making fun of DiFi, including her frightening helmet hair, for over 30 years so I don't think our beloved Princess Sparkle Pony is going to be feeling particularly territorial. Besides, just like you, I'm one of the Princess' very special Pony Pals.

Dear Jan: DiFi's facelifts are actually well done. I was just at the Ballet Gala where there were way too many elderly women who literally looked deformed from all their plastic surgery. And yes, the artwork at the Senate luncheon was bizarre, especially those crystal things they gave Obama and Biden.